Forecast

Chief: Several Derby cops under investigation

Tara O'Neill| on
July 10, 2018

DERBY — The Derby Police Department has opened an internal affairs investigation after a recent allegation of racial profiling.

Jessica Matthews said her 16-year-old son was with a group of friends, most of whom are African American, after the annual Derby/Shelton fireworks on July 3, when they were harassed by police officers.

“I wasn’t there,” Matthews said Tuesday. “But I’ve been able to gather what happened from my son’s account and the video footage.”

She filed a complaint with police on Thursday about what she called racial profiling. Her son gave a detailed statement Monday, Derby Police Chief Gerald Narowski said.

Narowski, who spoke via a department statement but could not be reached for further comment, did not say how many cops were being investigated.

“The department takes all complaints against officers very seriously and will investigate each one thoroughly and fairly while always considering the police officers’ right to due process,” he said.

Matthews, whose son is not African American, said she wished an outside agency would do the investigation to prevent any potential bias.

Derby Mayor Richard Dziekan did not choose to comment.

“Once we get the results (of the internal investigation), my office will have a statement,” he said.

On July 3, Matthews said, cops told the teens they couldn’t loiter on the streets and followed them. Soon after, the teens started to record the interaction.

In three cellphone videos that Matthews shared but declined to have made public, voices are heard, apparently trying to identify police officers.

“What’s your badge number?” one voice asks.

“I don’t have to tell you that,” another responds.

Another video shows someone who Matthews said is her son as he walks up to officers and takes video of the names on their uniforms.

“Don’t come near me, I’m not going to say it again,” one man who appears to be an officer says in the video. “Get it out of my face, out of my face now.”

Another man then appears to take the phone away. And another man explains why the phone was taken from the teen.

“You can film, but you ain’t gonna put it in people’s faces, all right?” it appears he says. “If you want to take it (a video), you gotta do it at a reasonable distance.”

A statement that Matthews said was written by her son and given to police said the phone was about 5 inches from the officer’s face.

Matthews said the officers acted without explaining the problem. She said the officer should have explained to her son his right to film on a public street and how far away he should keep the phone from the officer before they took his phone, cutting short his recording of the full interaction.

The videos Matthews shared could not be authenticated. And Narowski said any footage shared only shows “one snippet in time.”